poppyshake

Half of a Yellow Sun - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Unabridged Audiobook) read by Adjoa Andoh Waterstones Synopsis: Winner of the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction 2007, this is a heartbreaking, exquisitely written literary masterpiece. This highly anticipated novel from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is set in Nigeria during the 1960s, at the time of a vicious civil war in which a million people died and thousands were massacred in cold blood. The three main characters in the novel are swept up in the violence during these turbulent years. One is a young boy from a poor village who is employed at a university lecturer's house. The other is a young middle-class woman, Olanna, who has to confront the reality of the massacre of her relatives. And the third is a white man, a writer who lives in Nigeria for no clear reason, and who falls in love with Olanna's twin sister, a remote and enigmatic character. As these people's lives intersect, they have to question their own responses to the unfolding political events. This extraordinary novel is about Africa in a wider sense: about moral responsibility, about the end of colonialism, about ethnic allegiances, about class and race; and about the ways in which love can complicate all of these things. Review: This is the second of Chimamanda's books that I've listened to, the first being 'Purple Hibiscus', and I much preferred this one. Having said that, it's not an easy listen or read. It details the horrors of the Nigerian-Biafran civil war as seen through the eyes of three people ... Ugwu - a lecturers houseboy, Olanna - the lecturer's partner and Richard - the English journalist who is living with Olanna's twin sister Kainene. The writing has such an authenticity to it, frighteningly so as the book progresses .. it's crisp and unflinching in a way that lets you know that the writer knows her subject thoroughly. Like with most books it starts by introducing us to it's main characters, so we join Ugwu as he spends his first day as houseboy to Odenigbo (and sleeps with cooked chicken in his pockets, having been rather overwhelmed by the well stocked fridge) and we read Olanna's account of her first meeting with Odenigbo. Olanna's twin sister is as unlike her as can be, Olanna is beautiful and has a willingness to please whereas Kainene, perhaps as a result of possessing neither of these traits, or at least not possessing them in as much abundance as Olanna, is more wordly and cynical. Kainene is not one of our narrators, but we get to know her well by the narration of her sister and her boyfriend Richard, this is also the case with Olanna's boyfriend, the lecturer, Odenigbo. At this point of time there are just the murmurings and simmerings of war, although the book does jump backwards and forwards, it doesn't stick to a traditional timeline as such .. parts one and three deal with our characters pre-war and parts two and four with the war and aftermath. But Adichie doesn't just deal with war in itself but the consequences of war, the starvation, corruption and disease, the uncertainty and terror and the feeling of helplessness and anger that comes with the loss of human rights. It's not just facts and figures written down, it's also about how you cope with seeing loved one's suffer or die of malnutrition. It's how you react to seeing people dismembered .. how do you stay sane? How do you keep carrying on when you have seen friends and relations slaughtered, witnessed rape and faced the daily struggle to find food?. It's about the fear of conscription and the battle to keep living for just another day .. how can you get word to your family or find out if they are safe? As the full intensity of the war impacts upon the lives of those that we've come to know, the book really heats up. It's seering, harrowing, uncomfortable stuff and very emotional. The first part of the book was fairly slow going, and I did find it a struggle to stay engaged, but in a way that made the second part all the more affecting. The narration of the audiobook was fantastic and I think that helped a lot. I think I might have struggled more with the dialogue and the slow going first half. 9/10

Oh that's ok then, I'm sure you'll love those

Waterstones gave away a supplement with the first few chapters of 'The Passage' but I only read a little bit as I realised almost straight away that it was something I wanted to read .. and I didn't want to spoil my enjoyment of tucking into the whole novel. I'm glad to read that the rest of it was equally superb, great review Mac ... must pick this one up soon.

ooh I feel pressure now *crosses fingers and prays Kylie won't have another 'How I Live Now' experience* Thanks Ben, not to worry. You've been busy with your studies which is far more important. You can't do much leisure reading when you're studying because it's a well known fact that your head will cave in so you've done the sensible thing

I don't know if anyone else has but I've started reading 'The Sea, The Sea' ... so far, so good, I like her style of writing.

Well done Janet glad to see you loved 'The Help' .. I thought it was great too.

Thanks Kylie, of course book covers are important ... the amount of books that I haven't read because I can't find a version with a tolerable cover is ridiculous .. or at least it was until I discovered the library. I don't seem to mind borrowing books with uninspiring covers I just can't have them ruining my shelves Of course, you cheated bigtime .. I know I did but you've taken it to a whole new level ... nine books in your favourite read category!!! I'm really annoyed because I haven't read six of them and now they must go on my list

I've just popped over to Goodreads and seen that 'Ex Libris' was already on my list ... as well as her 'At Large and at Small', so I must have read about them somewhere .. possibly when looking at Susan's book. That explains why I'm constantly buying books that I already own .. I have no memory.

No I haven't read that one .. thanks for the recommendation .. must put it on my list I must admit to having some rather careless habits regarding book treatment so I was comforted by Susan's comments but I could never arrange my books so haphazardly as she does .. that is something that I'm far too obsessive about. I arranged some books yesterday with the hope that I'd be more liberal but no, I was still trying to categorize and colour code them.

Your favourite read of the year? 'Middlesex' by Jeffrey Eugenides .. closely followed by 'The Shipping News' by Annie Proulx and 'Neverwhere' by Neil Gaiman Your favourite author of the year? A mixture of Dan Rhodes/Neil Gaiman/Jasper Fforde Your most read author of the year? Neil Gaiman although Jasper Fforde is gaining on him Your favourite book cover of the year? The book you abandoned (if there was more than one, then the one you read the least of)? Flaubert's Parrot by Julian Barnes .. and I've no idea why, I like Julian's books and 'Flaubert's Parrot' is on all the big lists, I just didn't have a clue what he was going on about .. perhaps it didn't help that I hated Madame Bovary .. I'll try again one day. The book that most disappointed you? 'The Rapture' by Liz Jensen .. after enjoying 'Ark Baby' so much I was really looking forward to this one ... alas, hated it! The funniest book you read this year? 'Catch 22' - Joseph Heller Your favourite literary character this year? has to be Thursday Next .. I love her! Your favourite children's book this year? 'Temeraire' - Naomi Novik Your favourite non-fiction book this year? 'Howards End is on the Landing' - Susan Hill Your favourite biography this year? I didn't read many but my fave amongst those I did read was 'Something Sensational to Read on the Train' by Gyles Brandreth Your favourite collection of short stories this year? 'The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes' by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Your favourite poetry collection this year? *rather shamefaced* .. I didn't read any. Your favourite illustrated book of the year? Tolkien's 'Letters from Father Christmas' .. just gorgeous I'm adding a category ... Your favourite Audiobook this year? It's between 'Wolf Hall' by Hillary Mantel, 'Wicked' by Gregory Maguire and 'The Help' by Kathryn Stockett

Good grief!

Me too, I'm just drinking hot drinks continually .. I was rationing them but it got so cold that rational thought has gone out of the window.

I have now had this .. with the additional crispy bacon and all I can say is yum! It stuck to my ribs perfectly which is just what was needed in this freeze.

What is (just skip those that don't apply) .... Your favourite read of the year? Your favourite author of the year? Your most read author of the year? Your favourite book cover of the year? The book you abandoned (if there was more than one, then the one you read the least of)? The book that most disappointed you? The funniest book you read this year? Your favourite literary character this year? Your favourite children's book this year? Your favourite non-fiction book this year? Your favourite biography this year? Your favourite collection of short stories this year? Your favourite poetry collection this year? Your favourite illustrated book of the year? These awards are based on your reading so the books don't have to have been published in 2010. I'm going to have to think long and hard before I answer them. This is really just an exercise to keep my brain going and stop me from falling into a freezing weather induced torpor, bought about by snow and lack of chocolate.

Great books on that list .. it's nice to have a list isn't it, they always throw up gems that you'd never have known of otherwise and highlight old classics that are worth a re-read (or a first read for that matter.) I wrote down Susan Hill's list of her '40 can't do without books' and straight away I picked one up at the library and I'm really enjoying it .. I'd never heard of it before. Happy reading Frankie

I really hope you enjoy it how are you with English dialects? .. hope it won't mar your enjoyment. It's not difficult, there are one or two words Ruby uses in particular, which are confusing at first .. like 'yoom' for 'you are' ... 'yo' for 'you' .... 'day' for 'didn't' ..'cor' for 'can't' and most confusingly ... 'doe' for 'don't' (I kept reading it as 'do' to start with which made complete nonsense of the sentence) but these are repeated so often that you get used to them. Thanks Mac and don't worry, we know you wouldn't hurt a fly .. though technically of course that's an insect .. and they might be exempt from your declaration I cannot, in all honesty, say I have never harmed a fly .. and amongst the spider population I'm probably regarded as a serial killer .. though, they're not insects are they I do my best to get them out of doors in one piece but there have been ... casualties!

I have been known to wake with a book stuck to my face so I'm not particularly worried about getting to the end of a paragraph etc. If I'm wide awake then I will read to the end of a chapter .. but it doesn't bother me if I stop off halfway through.

poor you you need to dose yourself up and then snuggle up somewhere warm with some more books

Ruby's Spoon - Anna Lawrence Pietroni Book Blurb: This is the tale of three women - one witch, one mermaid and one missing - and how Ruby was caught up in between. When Isa Fly appears in the doorway of Captin Len's Fried Fish Shop, thirteen-year-old Ruby is entranced. Isa comes from the coast where the air is fresh; unlike Ruby's home in Cradle Cross, its factory furnaces pumping and filthy slits of canal water sending up a stink. Isa is on the hunt for a missing person, and Ruby is eager to help, convinced she will be repaid with an adventure at sea. But some of the townsfolk are instantly suspicious of the outsider with her shock of white hair and glinting mirrored skirts. They have their own lost relatives to mourn, and don't take kindly to Isa's ability to leave their Ruby spellbound. Undaunted, Ruby introduces Isa to Truda Blick, the bluestocking graduate who has just inherited the town's button factory, where carcasses are rendered down and bones turned into buttons. Blickses is on the verge of collapse, and Truda has her work cut out. Ruby is desperate to help Truda and Isa but her alliance with the women is pushing the town to the brink of riot. All the trouble began, it seems, when Isa Fly arrived in Cradle Cross...Only Ruby knows enough to save them all. But first she must save herself. Review: This is another one that I loved and another great debut. Thirteen year old Ruby Abel Tailor is a great character, full of spirit and spark. The writing is beautifully imaginative, there's a lot of criticism that the story needs a good edit (I nearly didn't read it because the reviews are fairly bad but the cover sang out to me at the library,) but I soaked it all up and wanted more .. I do love adult fairy tales. Rather like The Girl with Glass Feet this could be a book for older children, there's just one or two phrases/rhymes that push it over into unsuitable. Ruby and some of the townsfolk of Cradle Cross speak in a strong Black Country dialect which can take some getting used to but after a chapter or so I was ok (although I have to say I pitched it more in the West Country which is geographically incorrect but seemed right in my head.) The book is full of interesting characters, Ruby of course is central to it all, she's a sparky little thing but also a thinker and a worrier. She lives a bit of a stifled life with her Nan Annie who loves her but is afraid of losing her and so attempts to hem her in. For one thing Nan Annie forbids Ruby to go anywhere near water, understandably so as family members have drowned, but it's a tall order in Cradle Cross because the town is surrounded by the cut, a dark, dank, smelly body of water full of rusting iron, bones and cack (Ruby's words.) Ruby is also close to Captin and works in his fried fish shop. Captin is a sort of surrogate father or grandfather rather as Ruby's own dad, Jamie Abel, is still alive. He hasn't lived at home for many moons since he fell out with Nan Annie. He lives, works and sleeps at the Dead Arm, a dock where he mends boats and where Ruby brings his dinner every day. Ruby also helps hand out the tea's at the Ruth and Naomi Thursday club, a club formed just after the war, for women who had lost loved one's .. 'tending and mending their grief where the years had worn it thin.' .. it's not a very exciting life for a thirteen year old. Maybe that's why Ruby is so taken with Isa Fly, a mysterious woman with salt white hair, one blind eye and an emerald skirt glinting with mirrors. Isa appears at Captin's fish shop one night searching for a lost relative. She has a way of storytelling which captures Ruby immediately, Ruby is determined to help and in return she hopes that Isa will take her back with her when she returns to Severnsea. For although Ruby has an instilled fear of water she has a longing and a hankering to sail on salty seas and she can smell sea breezes on Isa. In their search the two of them forge an unlikely friendship with Truda Cole Blick, another outsider, who has recently inherited the towns button factory. To say that the townswomen are suspicious of Isa is an understatement, they believe she is the very Devil incarnate set to bring ruin to Cradle Cross and the local children sing rhymes about her 'Isa Fly has got one eye - Her father pawned the other. And then he cut her heart away, And fed it to her brother.' They believe she has bewitched their dear Ruby, not to mention Captin and Truda. Especially hostile is Belle Severn or to give her her nickname 'The Blackbird'. Belle works the dredger in the cut and seems to be particularly concerned about Isa's presence in Cradle Cross, she makes threats to Ruby, telling her she will drown her if she doesn't tell her what Isa has come there for. The women are not very keen on Truda either who, in order to try and save the factory from closure, has made some pretty unpopular changes. Ruby, acting as errand girl for Truda, finds herself for the first time, criticised and unwelcome amongst the women who have always held her dear. Nobody in Cradle Cross has ever heard of Isa's missing relative and even Isa herself doesn't seem all that intent on continuing the search. Life starts to change for Ruby, everything she has always held dear and true begins to unravel. Things in Cradle Cross become desperate, precious items are stolen and others desecrated, all eyes are turned towards Isa Fly and the Ruth & Naomi's adopt their own methods to try and rid the town of her ... but Ruby is determined to stick by her however dangerous it gets. An atmospheric other-worldly tale of water and the sea, of witches, mermaids, secrets, grudges, rumours and resentments and of one young girls longing for a different kind of life. It's an unusual book, it's not going to be to everyone's taste (the dialect for one thing.) Slightly similar to The Undrowned Child and I Coriander but more challenging and more original. I love the cover it's really appealing and there's a lovely little hand drawn map of Cradle Cross inside which is so useful when you're just finding your way around. I think I fell under it's spell, I must read it again soon. 10/10

I really need to check it out, it sounds just my sort of thing .. must put it on my Lovefilm rental list. I'm not sure whether we get it normally in the UK. I haven't got Sky or anything (we are absolute dinosaurs,) just the normal channels plus some freeview channels. But this creaky old house I've moved into has a creaky old aerial and I'm lucky to get BBC1 and 2 tbh. It's on the 'must do' list .. new aerial .. but the 'must do' list is pages long. Still I can't cope with the thought of having fuzzy TV reception at Christmas time .. what am I supposed to do instead .. read books!! .. come to think of it that would be a much better idea. But I can't even think of Christmas without 'The Grinch' or 'the Snowman' or at least one 'Christmas Carol/Scrooge' .. I need to sort it.

Oh dear!! but you know it's only fair because you all do the same to me. I can't condone the killing of kittens so I promise that I'll try and only read and review books that you're guaranteed to loathe .. you'll have to suggest some titles. As I usually like the same books as you both I'm in for a pretty rough time of it .. but I'm prepared to suffer if it will save a furry friend. No Danielle Steel books though please, the covers alone bring me out in a sweat and if it was a straight choice between her and some kittens .. well, let's not go there. Anyway, I'm sure there is an immunity vaccine available on here somewhere .. I need it whenever I pop into the Rory Gilmore thread. I've never ever seen the programme (for the longest time I thought Rory was a boy) but I love that list of books and it's mercilessly adding to my TBR's.

I am salivating .. if we could introduce some crispy bacon then I'd be in heaven

Yes, they're both great .. but it would be nice to see a female in the final .. surely Kara deserves to be there.

Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows Pt1 .. and I thought it was brilliant, can't wait for Pt 2. I cried when .. I knew I would, I did when I read it.

Dairy Colouring Pencils or Felt Tip Pens?